Injuries

Expert diagnosis and tailored treatment plans for all type of injuries.

A Injury can be;

A sudden injury – which is the result of a sudden impact or an awkward movement
An overuse injury – which develops over time as a result of overusing certain parts of the body or poor technique

Osteopaths are able to diagnose and treat all types of sports related injuries whether you are an elite professional, an enthusiastic amateur, a gym worshipper or simply someone who likes to keep fit. As we are all aware, playing sports and taking part in regular exercise is good for our health, but can sometimes result in injuries, whether it is from an accident, poor training practice, use of improper equipment or insufficient warm up and stretching.

What is the Difference Between Acute and Chronic Injuries?

Regardless of the specific structure affected, sports injuries can generally be classified in one of two ways: acute or chronic.

Acute Injuries

Acute injuries, such as a sprained ankle, strained back, or fractured hand, occur suddenly during activity. Signs of an acute injury include the following:

Sudden, severe pain
Swelling
Inability to place weight on a lower limb
Extreme tenderness in an upper limb
Inability to move a joint through its full range of motion
Extreme limb weakness
Visible dislocation or break of a bone.

Chronic Injuries

Chronic injuries usually result from overusing one area of the body while playing a sport or exercising over a long period. The following are signs of a chronic injury:

Pain when performing an activity
A dull ache when at rest
Swelling

What happens when the body is injured?

From the moment a bone breaks or a ligament tears, your body goes to work to repair the damage. Here’s what happens at each stage of the healing process:

At the moment of injury: Chemicals are released from damaged cells, triggering a process called inflammation. Blood vessels at the injury site become dilated; blood flow increases to carry nutrients to the site of tissue damage.

Within hours of injury: White blood cells (leukocytes) travel down the bloodstream to the injury site where they begin to tear down and remove damaged tissue, allowing other specialized cells to start developing scar tissue.

Within days of injury: Scar tissue is formed on the skin or inside the body. The amount of scarring may be proportional to the amount of swelling, inflammation, or bleeding within. In the next few weeks, the damaged area will regain a great deal of strength as scar tissue continues to form.

Within a month of injury: Scar tissue may start to shrink, bringing damaged, torn, or separated tissues back together. However, it may be several months or more before the injury is completely healed.

What to do if you have an injury?

For the first few days after an injury, prevent further damage by avoiding HARM. (Heat, Alcohol, Running, Massage)

Stop exercising if you feel pain, regardless of whether your sports injury happened suddenly or you’ve had the pain for a while. Continuing to exercise while you’re injured may cause further damage and slow your recovery time.

Pain, swelling and restricted limb movements, straight after a sports injury are all fairly common symptoms for which POLICE (Protect, Optimal Load, Ice, Compression, and Elevate) is often advised.

Treating sports injuries

Sports injuries will require specialist advice and treatment to evaluate the extent of damage to the;

Muscles,
Bones,
Joints,
Tissue,
Ligaments, (thick bands of tissue that connect one bone to another)
Tendons, (tough, rubbery cords that link muscles to bones)
Cartilage, (tough, flexible tissue that covers the surface of joints and allows bones to slide over one another)